What if your bank charged a monthly fee of $15 for your checking account and also charged $0.10 for each check written? How would you represent this scenario with a function? Also, what if you could only afford to spend $20 a month on fees? Could you use your function to find out how many checks you could write per month? In this Concept, you'll learn how to handle situations like these by using functions.

Guidance

Write a Function Rule

In many situations, data is collected by conducting a survey or an experiment. To visualize the data, it is arranged into a table. Most often, a function rule is needed to predict additional values of the independent variable.

Example A

Write a function rule for the table.

Solution:

You pay $24 for 2 CDs, $48 for 4 CDs, and $120 for 10 CDs. That means that each CD costs $12.

We can write the function rule.

or

Example B

Write a function rule for the table.

Solution:

The values of the dependent variable are always the corresponding positive outcomes of the input values. This relationship has a special name, the absolute value. The function rule looks like this:
.

Represent a Real-World Situation with a Function

Let’s look at a real-world situation that can be represented by a function.

Example C

Maya has an internet service that currently has a monthly access fee of $11.95 and a connection fee of $0.50 per hour. Represent her monthly cost as a function of connection time.

Solution:

Let
the number of hours Maya spends on the internet in one month and let
Maya’s monthly cost. The monthly fee is $11.95 with an hourly charge of $0.50.

The total cost
flat fee
hourly fee
number of hours. The function is
.

Video Review

Guided Practice

When diving in the ocean, you must consider how much pressure you will experience from diving a certain depth. From the atmosphere, we experience 14.7 pounds per square inch (psi) and for every foot we dive down into the ocean, we experience another 0.44 psi in pressure.

b.) How far can you dive without experiencing more than 58.7 psi of pressure on your body?

Solution:

a.) We are always experiencing 14.7 psi from the atmosphere, and that pressure increases by 0.44 psi for every foot we descend into the ocean. Let
be our depth in feet underwater. Our dependent variable is the pressure
, which is a function of
:

b.) We want to know what our depth would be for a pressure of 58.7 psi.

Simplifying our equation by subtracting 14.7 from each side:

What should
be in order to satisfy this equation? It looks like
should be 100. Let's check:

So we do not want to dive more than 100 feet, because then we would experience more than 58.7 psi of pressure.

Practice

Use the following situation:
Sheri is saving for her first car. She currently has $515.85 and is saving $62 each week.

Write a function that represents the number of cuts you need to cut a ribbon in
number of pieces.

Solomon charges a $40 flat rate and $25 per hour to repair a leaky pipe. Write a function that represents the total fee charged as a function of hours worked. How much does Solomon earn for a three-hour job?

Rochelle has invested $2500 in a jewelry-making kit. She makes bracelets that she can sell for $12.50 each. How many bracelets does Rochelle need to make before she breaks even?